1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for wireless device testing.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless network operators and device manufactures typically perform field testing to evaluate device performance and prove capabilities.
However, field testing is complex and the testing environment is not well controlled. As a result, troubleshooting of events which occur during drive testing typically requires extensive repetition of the field drive tests. This kind of testing is time consuming and expensive, making it difficult to do more than basic functional testing over a limited set of configurations and underlying conditions.
Additionally, since different wireless devices may respond quite differently to the same RF scenarios, the field drive tests are typically repeated for each of the different devices.
In or around the year 2000, Spirent Communications, Inc. provided Qualcomm Inc. with technology that tested mobile handsets based on previously gathered field RF measurements. Also in or around the year 2000, Kyocera Wireless Corp. bought Qualcomm Inc.'s terrestrial Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless handset business. It is believed that the technology described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868 assigned to Kyocera Wireless Corp., is derived from the technology provided by Spirent Communications, Inc. to Qualcomm Inc., and that this technology provided by Spirent Communications, Inc. to Qualcomm Inc. is cumulative to the contents of U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868 assigned to Kyocera Wireless Corp. U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868 is incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868 describes a technology which is limited in that, the emulated base station signals are directed exclusively at recreating a captured RF environment, without recreating the network events corresponding to the captured RF environment. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868, the retrievers fail to create logs of network events, and the instrumentation is missing the synchronized capacity. Consequently, the mobile device in U.S. Pat. No. 7,508,868 makes calls at random times, without regard to timing of the RF environment.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and systems for testing wireless devices addressing the various issues discussed above.